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HSA news release 26th May 2011

Three Hunt Saboteurs found not-guilty of Aggravated Trespass

3 members of the Hunt saboteurs association were yesterday found not-guilty of aggravated trespass after a three day trial at Newark Magistrates Court.

They had been monitoring the Grove and Rufford Foxhounds, in November last year, to ensure compliance with the Hunting Act. It was suspected that the hunt had been hunting live foxes. At least one fox had been seen running from the hunt that day. The defendants exercised their lawful right not to supply their details to police but were then arrested and prosecuted.

After two days of prosecution evidence material came to light that showed prosecution witnesses, including police officers, had lied under oath and the case was dismissed. During his summing up the District Judge expressed his displeasure with the Crown Prosecution Service for allowing the case to come to trial and demanded answers from them about why this decision had been made.

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs association, stated: This ridiculous court case has wasted a huge amount of public funds. This money should have been used by the police and Crown Prosecution Service to enforce the Hunting Act rather than persecuting innocent people. We hope Nottinghamshire Police learn from this verdict and start to focus their resources on the real criminals who continue to illegally chase and kill wildlife.

On Saturday 26 February, hunt saboteurs from Bristol, Bath and South Walesattended a meet of the Cotswold Vale Farmers foxhunt at Southwick Farmnear Tewkesbury.

At approximately 2.30pm the Huntsman (Alan Morgan) and Whip (John Hodges)instigated a vicious and sustained attack on sabs, who were on a footpath. The attack involved hunt supporters including Hodges' son. With Alan andJohn attempting to ride people down, the supporters coralled sabs in agateway and attacked them. They body barged a female sab before punchinga male sab to the ground where they kicked him in the face and about theupper body. They also stole his video camera. When a female sab tried tointervene she was thrown down a wooded bank. Alan, the huntsman, trappedtwo female sabs against a fence and attempted to steal their video camera,but he failed, so he pushed one of the females to the floor and encouragedhis horse to walk over her - luckily she was un-injured as the horse trodcarefully over her.The sabs eventually managed to escape but were followed by the huntsupporters who kicked and abused them until they made it to the safety oftheir vehicle. Undeterred by the attack they continued to monitor thehunt for the rest of the day before taking one of their number, who theysuspected of having broken ribs, to seek medical attention. The policeare now investigating the attack.This is just the latest in a long line of attacks by the Cotswold ValeHunt on hunt saboteurs. Three years ago they smashed a female sab overthe head with an iron bar. They have also kicked a sab unconscious,broken several peoples ribs and stolen a number of video cameras. AlanMorgan, the huntsman, is currently being investigated by police afterbeing caught on film making racist remarks to a hunt saboteur.

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated:â€œViolence is a way of life for these people. They abuse animals everyday and are happy to do the same to people who stand in their way. Theyhave been allowed, with the collusion of the police, to get away withthese vicious, cowardly attacks for far too long. These attacks will notdeter our members, in fact, they only make us more determined to stop themillegally hunting and killing British wildlife